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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25433914">Little Jade Corvette</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/epaynter/pseuds/epaynter'>epaynter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Mentalist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Blood and Violence, Crime Scenes, F/M, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Mutual Pining, Psychological Trauma</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 06:47:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,144</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25433914</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/epaynter/pseuds/epaynter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy Volker, fixated with Agent Teresa Lisbon, decides their initial game of cat and mouse is not enough for him. He needs more and he is willing to risk everything for it. (Volker Arc - Canon Divergence. Set in S5.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Patrick Jane &amp; Teresa Lisbon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Little Jade Corvette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>The first time Tommy Volker observes Agent Teresa Lisbon, he sees her before she sees him.</p><p>It's an event, there is a speech, he is smiling. It's around thirty seconds before his name is mentioned. His eyes survey the room as he waits for the focus to shift to him and there she is. Two tables to his right. She is wearing a navy blazer and a loose top - aqua, he adds, when her shoulder shifts to the side.</p><p>Her eyes are intense, facing forward. She then observes motion to her right, and her dark locks tumble to her back. He watches her legs for an instance.</p><p>He looks back towards the presentation, several seconds before the moment, and his name is called.</p><p>He smiles.</p><p>He can feel her eyes on him.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Their introduction, for him, is like arousal on a slow drip.</p><p>"Agent. It's a pleasure." Her wrist is so small that he could snap it with two fingers, "What brings you here?"</p><p>Agent Lisbon is looking at Volker in the eyes. Factual, pragmatic, without fear.</p><p>The excitement growing inside, like a distant hum, a primal allure - is a pleasant surprise.</p><p>"What a senseless tragedy," He utters with a soft tone.</p><p>The issue begins with an interruption. Agent Lisbon sees exactly what he sees - Amanda Shaw is a potential liability or a source of it - and he thinks that rather poetic of them to do so at the same moment. He breaks weak people as a means to an end.</p><p>"Call me anytime. And I mean that."</p><p>"Okay. Thanks."</p><p>To break a strong-willed individual with fear and agony until you watch the life drain from their eyes - that is a delicacy worth savoring.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>When Mr. Berman makes a statement at the CBI in regards to the past research of Cassie Flood, Lisbon flashes back to their handshake. It had started with a murdered girl. Now, it is an entire village.</p><p>His smile makes her teeth clench.</p><p>Jane appears, finally, at some point - in a crumpled pinstriped suit, taking control of a situation that is already handled, offering bare-bones insight due to the fact that he has barely touched this case. It frustrates her more than it helps.</p><p>"I know what to do," She snaps.</p><p>"I know you do." He replies, "You go, girl, huh?"</p><p>She looks back at him and there is something in his expression that causes her to breathe out slowly. She hadn't realized she had been holding the air her lungs through tension alone. She rolls her eyes and offers a fraction of a smile in return.</p><p>He looks... <em>worried?</em></p><p>He has been preoccupied with his own plans, that of which Lisbon is sure he will never share with her. <em>That's where they were at,</em> she thinks, <em>well, where he's at.</em></p><p>Lisbon shakes it off.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The second time Volker speaks with Agent Lisbon, she is alive with fury and courage. It is not your usual fury, which often involves passion and physical reactions, prone to mistakes and missteps. It is a cold, calculated fury - only bubbling over ever so slightly.</p><p>It is an intoxicating display for him.</p><p>"What village? What massacre?" He is willing to dance with her if she looking to play. He can play whatever role was needed, he could even convince her that she is winning.</p><p>Amanda is stiff beside him.</p><p>"No offense. Cop humor." Agent Lisbon is one daring human being, that he had been sure of. This is is a whole other push against him.</p><p>Volker moves towards her. She smells sweet, very light on the floral tones.</p><p>"So I don't want you to worry that you've offended me in any way. You don't, do you?"</p><p>He wonders what it would be like to have her himself. His hands around her neck. He can see a vein pulsing, pushing against her skin.</p><p>That is a new thought. A temptation - a risk.</p><p>"No, if you say I haven't."</p><p>Her lack of fear is as if someone injected morphine into his bloodstream. He feels elated as he climbs the stairs to his jet.</p><p>"Please feel free to drop by any time," He adds. He can't help it.</p><p>The danger this presents for him makes him feel alive. Her feigned apathy is only an added delight to the hunt.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Lisbon finds Jane upstairs. He closes a file as soon as she enters and she hates that she nearly winces at the reaction.</p><p>"You've come up with some plan you don't want me to know about."</p><p>It's a fact, not a question. She wonders what Jane is thinking a lot these days. She always has in a professional sense but now she wonders what he thinks of her. She never really had to worry about that before. It's unfamiliar and, if she lingers on the thought for too long, makes her stomach turn.</p><p>
  <em>Before what, exactly?</em>
</p><p>Lisbon knows, of course. She just would rather not so she doesn't acknowledge it. She states her plan to visit Amanda Shaw, while she hovers beside him - she tells herself he'd want to know.</p><p>"You want me to come with you?"</p><p>"Don't bother. I can manage."</p><p>She is exhausted and his presence lacks his present attention these days. She'd rather drown her thoughts with the radio than watch him appear miles away all the while sitting at her side. She tries not to think about how his focus used to snap to her instinctively. She can't be replaced if she hadn't occupied mental space in his mind to begin with, she reminds herself, but she plans to ignore it until she stops feeling as if she has.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>A voice orders the grip to be loosened around the neck of Amanda Shaw. He asks her a question.</p><p>"When you saw Teresa Lisbon earlier this evening, how did she look?"</p><p>She lets out a throaty, garble sob.</p><p>"She is hard to forget, isn't she?"</p><p>There is the motion of a hand. The start of her scream is muffled by a choking sound.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em>"Amanda, I promise nothing is going to happen to you as long as you do the right thing."</em>
</p><p>Lisbon stands in front of the hanging body.</p><p>She hates herself, it hits like a tidal wave, and her breathing is quiet but rapid.</p><p>Outside of the apartment is a temporary escape. She is sitting on the steps when Tommy Volker sits beside her. She can't stand because that is what he wants. She grinds her teeth instead.</p><p>"Agent Lisbon. We've been seeing a lot of each other recently," He says gently, his eyes empty, "I'm not sure of your feelings but I'm growing rather fond of you."</p><p>
  <em>Go to hell.</em>
</p><p>"You won't get away with this."</p><p>"You have no idea what's happening, do you, Teresa?"</p><p>His fingers stroke her thigh.</p><p>The image of Amanda Shaw, limp and hanging, floods her mind. She hates herself almost as much as she hates him.</p><p>It takes every ounce of willpower Lisbon has not to break each one in a different spot.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Jane is worried.</p><p>Granted, he is worried about a variety of issues. That is pretty much the human condition. Considering his current makeshift profession and overall objective - worry comes with the territory.</p><p>He had been crouched, with Lisbon directly across from him, behind the kitchen island of a realty home. She had dozed off into a fitful nap and he has spent the last hour and a half watching her<em> (a pastime he is incredibly fond of, he loves to categorize her unguarded expressions - damaged, humble, and alight with earnest desires)</em> mumble without opening her mouth when suddenly her murmurs had become increasingly coherent and frantic.</p><p>She is begging, it is barely audible to Jane then, pleading for something to stop.</p><p>He puts a hand on her thigh and Lisbon jerks awake in an instant, ripping her leg away from his touch, her eyes wide and wild. She opens her mouth and when she breathes in, it shakes to the rhythm of her beating pulse.</p><p>He can't find the words at first, Jane has never seen her look so small, "Lisbon-"</p><p>"Sorry. You surprised me, Jane. That's all."</p><p>"Why are you lying to me?"</p><p>
  <em>(Don't do this. Please just tell me the truth. Talk to me.)</em>
</p><p>"I'm not," She lies.</p><p>The door rattles and they both scramble to adjust their positions. His mind replays her reaction to his touch ad nauseam and a word she kept repeating.</p><p>
  <em>Volker.</em>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Lisbon is feeling good when she argues her case in the office of Judge Davis. There is a sense of control emanating from the evidence clasped inside the palm of her hand - the brief thought that she might even be able to sleep more than an hour at a time tonight crosses her mind as well.</p><p>"Agent Lisbon. Why are you doing this?"</p><p><em>A man murders an entire village for his own personal gain, two women, and likely countless others as well, </em>she thinks, <em>and you're asking me why I'm doing this?</em></p><p>The older woman sighs.</p><p>"Why are<em> you</em> doing this?"</p><p>"Look, I paid for the autopsy myself - this is concrete evidence Amanda Shaw didn't commit suicide and it is deserving of a warrant."</p><p>
  <em>I'm doing this because I can't fail her again.</em>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>"You look good. Have you been working out?"</p><p>Every time she closes her eyes, she hears the voice of Tommy Volker. It's a parasite infecting her consciousness at a slow, consistent rate.</p><p>"Have a lovely day, Agent Lisbon."</p><p>She is so angry at her own terror that she could vomit.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>"I'm just a little worried he's inside your head... and believe me, that's not a good road to go down. Bad neighborhood."</p><p>"I think you can understand I don't really have a choice."</p><p>"I can certainly understand that. I just - I-I want you to be careful," Jane states softly.</p><p>He knows he is a hypocrite. He's willing to shout it from the rooftops if it meant keeping Lisbon from drifting outside of his reach.</p><p>"He may be powerful, but he's not invincible. And he's not in my head."</p><p>"I hope not. If you need my help, let me know. "</p><p>It's an offer that doesn't seem to reach her and the absence of vibrancy in her eyes claws at his throat.</p><p>"This one is mine."</p><p>
  <em>(I keep seeing the darkest parts of myself in you, Teresa, and I don't know how to help you the way you've helped me.)</em>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>"Hello, Teresa. How are you today?"</p><p>When he calls her, Lisbon feels as if she has begun to gain the upper hand for once. His use of her first name makes her skin crawl.</p><p>"Fantastic, actually."</p><p>"Oh, I can imagine. The thrill of the chase and all that."</p><p>"I'm not sure I know what you're referring to, Mr. Volker."</p><p>"Oh, don't be modest. The warrant for Charles Milk."</p><p>Whatever power she had felt, as fleeting as it was, is lost to sudden dread forming inside the lining of her stomach.</p><p>"How did you know about that?"</p><p>"Oh, I have my ways. At any rate, you won't find what you're looking for. He did a few personal security jobs for me, nothing more. But hey - he's a great guy. I'm sure you'll enjoy him."</p><p>
  <em>Fuck you.</em>
</p><p>"If that's it, I've got another call."</p><p>"By all means, you should take that." Volker responds, "And, Teresa? I thought I should mention this since I have you on the phone - I love your choice of decor. Green linen sheets are a bold choice, but I imagine they suit your eyes incredibly well."</p><p>The line goes dead.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>It takes Lisbon less than ten minutes to drive home - she sweeps each room with her gun drawn. Once she is sure that she's alone, she snaps it back into the holster.</p><p>And then panic takes over.</p><p>She pulls out every drawer, tears through old flyers, throws her clothes out onto the floor. She pushes the sheets off her bed, grabbing the fitted one with her nails, and the pillows tumble with it.</p><p>A note flutters to the floor along with the rest. It is typed, green font, on generic white printer paper. There will be no trace evidence left behind, that she is certain. She picks it up.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>I'm enjoying you.</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Lisbon digs into her pockets for her phone - her heart in her throat, hands shaking - scrolling through the call history pausing at first name that occupied the first several most recent call slots. She keeps scrolling and stops at another.</p><p>"Cho. This is Lisbon."</p><p>"Hey, boss. What's up?"</p><p>"I need help."</p><p>She sits in the chaos, staring at the note while crumpled on her bedroom floor, until the sound of approaching sirens snap her back into reality.</p><p>Lisbon feels dirty, paralyzed, and - as she pulls herself to her feet - she wishes, for a fraction of a second, that she had called Jane instead.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>(Lines taken directly from If it Bleeds, it Leads &amp; Days of Wine and Roses &amp; Panama Red- this is to establish the initial plot from S5    and diverge from there.)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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